The International House of Mojo

Former long-time LucasArts' employee Ryan Kaufman (now at Planet Moon) writes up how the Jedi Knight expansion pack Mysteries of the Sith came into being in this two part entry on his starwars.com blog; Part 1 | Part 2

Mara finds and enters the ancient Sith temple and discovers that Kyle has gone a little bonkers with dark side power. She has to chase him to the center, but first--- ZOMBIES!

That's right. I don't know how we got this one past Licensing, but there is an area of the temple called The Catacombs, where the undead Sith will rise and fight you. Yep, Sith Zombies, people. It was great. They shot lightning from their hands and were generally pretty pesty. And it's canon. Zombies are canon...

We remembered how both Obi-Wan and Luke had dropped their defenses and sacrificed themselves in their conflict with Vader (who had been corrupted by the dark side, as Kyle had.) We realized that we had a great hook for our final battle-players would have to surrender to the possibility of utter defeat, power down their lightsabers, and draw on the goodness that was still within Kyle.

Nice to hear a bit more about that oft-overlooked Jedi Knight expansion pack.

Source: StarWars.com

Joystiq is reporting that George Lucas will receive the Entertainment Software Association?s 2005 Champions Award for the efforts of his gaming studio, LucasArts... Past recipients include Michael Goldstein (Toys ?R? Us), Howard Lincoln (Nintendo), Isao Ogawa (Sega), Will Wright (EA), Jeffrey Griffiths (Electronic Boutique), and Joel Hochberg Rare, and Bing Gordon (EA).

Here's a Ron Gilbert quote to restore Balance to the Force.

Did George Lucas ever pop his head around the door at LucasArts?
No, but Steven Spielberg did. Spielberg was a game fanatic, so every time he came up to the ranch to do business with George he was over at the games division, wanting to know what we were doing. He'd say: "Show me this! Show me that!" and grab the joystick away from us. He was great.

Anyway, good on ya LucasArts!

Source: Joystiq

Whoa check it out. What the hell is that little squiggly thing at the bottom there? Here, one sec:


A new LucasArts logo? I have to say, it just kind of looks like someone stepped on the old one. Anyway, maybe they have a new logo, and maybe it's that. I guess with no actual new games coming up, sales and marketing needed something to do to make them look busy to the boss.

Ah: Apparently this logo is one of a matching set that all Lucas companies have been given under the new "we're all under the same roof figuratively and literally" corporate structure. You can see them all here.

Despite my reputation as the Matthew Hopkins of POTC / Monkey Island comparisons, it is perhaps appropriately ironic that I once again open the can of worms. Hell, I started it last time. I just love that movie. But yeah, anyway, at the Comic Con in San Deigo... whenever it was, there was some Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Mans Chest footage. And old Deppo is to be seen escaping from some cannibals.

Unless one of the cannibals happens to have a lemon on his head, I think I'm safe. But feel free to make crazy hasty rumours. You know you want to.

While probably not of interest to many (bring the adventure games back into stock, dammit), the LucasArts store has brought a few "older" games back into availability. (Re-)Introducing titles like:

Armed & Dangerous
Secret Weapons Over Normandy
Gladius
the beloved Wrath Unleashed (or "Warth Unleashed," as it's called on the street these days)
Clone Wars
Starfighter
Star Wars Force Commander
Bounty Hunter

all in glorious new budget editions. Have fun with that. Also, though probably not new, they've added back Escape from Monkey Island, which was nowhere to be seen since the "new and improved" store opened. Surely Labyrinth can't be far behind!

Because we love stealing stuff from PC Zone, we?ve illegally scanned another article that?s in issue 159 of the excellent UK gaming mag - a look at Sam & Max 2 and why it was cancelled. No link to Mojo was given (probably because we keep scanning their stuff and putting it up on the net) but the Zone gang did ask Deus Ex Machina for some comments, because, you know, Ron Gilbert has totally been involved with every adventure game ever. Just kidding, we love you really Ronzo!

Anyway, they also asked ?doctor? Wolfgang Von Brent about Bad Brain?s blundering moves, though unfortunately they don?t make fun of him. Mike Stemmle actually says some interesting stuff, though: ?I?ve kinda blocked [the cancellation] out, like memories of ritual Satanic abuse?, he sighs, hopefully not speaking from experience. The article also reveals the painful statistic that the game was 90% finished when it was cancelled, a fact that embarrasses LucasArts even further. Unfortunately the Golden Guy in his ivory tower was unavailable for comment, but there have been reports that Jim Ward has been seen laughing manically from his helicopter made out of money.

In his recent siggraph keynote address, George Lucas mentioned the direction he wants his computer games division to move in.

"I want to get to a point where you can talk to the game and it will talk back." According to Lucas, a system with artificial intelligence is the "ultimate goal" of those working in the gaming industry.

"I'm really pushing for advances in artificial intelligence and intelligent voice-recognition technology," he added in front of the crowd of thousands.

Lucas believes such technology would allow gamers to be the stars of games that are even more like movies than the current crop of video games: "I think that will change games from first-person shooter narratives to intelligent and challenging first-person shooter-type dramas."

Games that are even more like movies than the current crop of video games? Joy. And speech recognition in games! Revolutionary.

Back in ?99 LucasArts had a stab at getting onto the action adventure bandwagon and cashing in on the Lara Croft craze with Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. Now, six years later, we review it. And if you?ve played the game then don?t forgot to drop a comment or two for good measure. Wic-chu!

The latest attempt at a Star Wars RTS game is getting closer to release. Today LucasArts posts the first tasty trailer for Empire at War.

While it's impossible to get a feel for the gameplay from a trailer alone it certainly looks impressive.

This title may be the first fruits of LucasArts' CEO Jim Ward's "less Star Wars games, but of a higher quality" mantra.

The game is being made by Petroglyph, a company made up predominantly of ex-Westwood Studios employees (they of Command & Conquer, etc).

Apparently we had some downtime during a server move. Imagine that. Is it over? Well, I don't know, but I'm sure we'll find out soon enough.

Anyway! Jake Udvarnoky apparently found these little animations while we were down. Witness previously un-seen scenes from Sam & Max: Freelance Police including a dance-off, butt shaving and a view of the town.

Go watch. Then weep.

At the end of this interview with LucasArts 2nd in command, Peter Hirschman he says, tragically and somewhat patronisingly;

Q: A new flight sim game in the style of X-Wing, like Totally Games used to do?

A: Oh goodness, I am such a fan of Larry Holland and what Totally Games has done. X-Wing is personally one of my favourite Star Wars games of all time. Larry is a hero! I've been fortunate enough to personally tell him that too.

I think that with Star Wars Battefront II, which is on PC, Xbox and PlayStation 2, we're delivering a bit of that experience. It's very accessible Star Wars space combat. I've always enjoyed what Factor 5 did with the Rogue Squadron series, but it was very much arcade oriented.

I think what Pandemic Studios is delivering with Battlefront II is much more akin to what Larry did with his X-Wing series. It's very accessible, yet has some depth and true flight mechanics. I think people who loved X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter are going to love Battlefront II. It's the first time in a long time that you're going to be able to have multiplayer battles - X-Wings vs. TIE Fighters - over the Internet. It looks great.

I don't think that we'll ever do just a dedicated X-Wing or TIE Fighter flight simulator again. Genres lines have blurred so much that people expect more, and frankly, we want to do more.

The point is that hardly anyone loved X-wing vs. Tie Fighter. Why? Because it had no plot. They hastily put togeter Balance of Power to accomodate all the negative comments from the press and fans. The greatest thing about X-Wing, Tie Fighter & Alliance is the wonderful story progression. All throughout that article Hirschman's going on about LucasArts' new mission to make games with compelling stories and characters. The old X-Wing series (except X vs T) had that in bucketloads. And unless there's a radical shift in direction in Battlefront 2 the plot and characterisations will be almost non existent.

And there's more that we already know in the article regarding Star Wars, Indiana Jones & Mercenaries. He even namechecks Grim Fandango and Sam & Max.

Source: Globe Technology

LucasArts CEO Jim Ward has been interviewed at Game Daily where he confirms the new company strategy of increasing internal development after the recent period of rebuilding.

"LucasArts is working on three or four games with outside developers and, internally, two are in production with that number expected to ramp up to four in the next few years as the company's game studio expands from 60-70 people today to over 150 a year from now. At that point, the plan is for the company to license out fewer titles and to do more of the development internally."

"Many people think of LucasArts as being the 'Star Wars' company, and traditionally, I suppose, that's been our heaviest SKU. However, the plan is absolutely to broaden our interactive gaming sphere with our 'Indiana Jones' IP, and with a number of new intellectual properties, most notably 'Mercenaries,' which we launched in January and which is becoming a brand new franchise for us."

The full interview is here.

Source: Game Daily

David Fox, creator of Zak McKraken, lead on Labyrinth and other very early LucasFilm Games has posted some interesting archival video clips (quicktime) on his website.

The video was first shown at the Lucasfilm Games press conference on May 9, 1984 to introduce their first two games, Rescue on Fractalus! and Ballblazer.

About the Video
At the press conference in 1984 where this video was first shown, the idea was to present only imagery captured directly from the game. We felt our first two games were breakthrough enough that we didn't need any special effects, and indeed, we were concerned that if anything on the screen was created outside the game, people might think everything was. That's why we chose to show a blank screen for the first minute and twenty seconds rather than creating any non-game imagery.
To prepare this video, first a script was written with all the dialog and scene descriptions. Dialog was recorded at Robert Berke Sound in San Francisco using professional voice-over actors. Then the video was captured to tape directly from an Atari 800 computer. The video and the voice were then edited together, and a few video transitions added between scenes. The only part of the video that was not from the Atari is the end sequence.

Click here for Rescue on Fractalus and here for Ballblazer.

There's more information on these two games and the early LucasFilm Games setup at this webpage by former employee Peter Langston, including some rather wonderful magazine & newspaper scans from 20+ years ago.

Update: I'm having problems playing the video clips in Explorer, though they launch and play OK in Opera. David Fox himself has stopped by and commented below.

Source: Electric Eggplant

Udvarnoky (by way of UK Gamer Man at Ron Gilbert's Grumpy Gamer Blog has posted in the mojo forums about an in depth article recalling the development of Maniac Mansion recently posted at Edge Online Magazine

Bad horror movies, Gilbert identifies, were the game?s spiritual origin. ?Gary and I tried to pull every clich? we could think of into the game and really make fun of the genre. Everyone in it was a stereotype. A little known fact is that most of the characters in the game are based on real people Gary and I know, but I?m not saying who for fear of reprisals.? Consider it a necessary breach of the journalist code, then, that when we reveal that Razor was inspired by Winnick?s girlfriend and that Dr Fred?s deviant nurse wife Edna was based on Gilbert?s mother, we also withhold the source of that information, saving that person the inconvenience of joining a witness protection programme even though we may now have to do so ourselves.

You'll be rushing off immediately to read the whole article, won't you?

GameSpy has taken it upon themselves to count down the Top 25 Xbox Games of All-Time, and quite a few familiar games made the list. LucasArts got three games in:

#23 LEGO Star Wars (Ok, so that's not LEC)
#19 Mercenaries
#2 Knights of the Old Republic

A pleasant surprise was seeing Psychonauts hitting #14. Hopefully this will make more people actually go buy the game. If you don't you're a tool. ?

LucasArts has opened its new LucasArts Store, which really isn't superbly new other than a re-branding, and an easier to use frontend. Is there anything else new? I couldn't find anything more at least...

As the oldest game in there is Curse of Monkey Island one can only hope that the GameTap rumor is true.

Update: The Tingler correctly points out that the store now ships internationally. Finally you can order that Secret of Monk... Oh, wait. :~

What? Okay so this is only very vaguely relevant, but I thought some people might be interested.

Here's an interview with the creator of Turner Enterprises' upcoming GameTap service, and some other information about it. GameTap is an online store similar to the iTunes Music Store, but instead of songs, obviously, they sell you downloadable games, including some modern titles, and an allegedly large back library.

I'm only posting about this because I have heard murmerings that some old Lucas titles will be appearing on the service. So, look out for that (maybe). If not, I guess GameTap also has Space Invaders.

You wouldn't think it from reading Mojo the last week, but things are actually happening out there. Like!

Double Fine is hiring. In fact, a bunch of different jobs were posted to their website last week. Does this mean a new project is in production? Who knows, but one can assume that something must be going on. Make sure to check out the Action Comics too, recently they've been updated almost daily.

IGN has posted a Psychonauts PS2 preview. No shocking new details are revealed, but worth a look anyway.

LucasArts is committing to support all new platforms. Does this mean we'll see the new Indy game on the Xbox360, PS2, and Revolution? It certainly sounds like it, though who knows what it'll mean for the PC.

Ah, the games buzzword of the year; "Storytelling". Jim Ward, president of LucasArts, gets in on the action in this interview at Boomtown

Right now there is no story in games. Gaming right now is about button management, basically. Take for instance Grand Theft Auto, a great game, I love it and play it, a fantastic game. But the story of that is just simply a broad context, you drive around some places and shoot people. But there is no real compelling story telling, very rarely you see this in good games.

In Half-Life, there was an attempt. But we need to infuse story into those games and make them compelling because every kind of entertainment, if it's a movie, a play, whatever it is, is all based on story and characters.

// Cue obligatory Sam & Max reference //

Source: Boomtown